Fire
by Hayley Brown
Summary: Alice must survive, and come to terms with her fear of, fire. The agent that stole her family now threatens her sanity and the lives of her friends and comrades. I got rid of the poetry because it was terrible and irrelevant.


SUMMARY: Alice must survive, and come to terms with her fear of, fire, the agent that took her family and now threatens her sanity and the lives of her friends/ comrades.

DISCLAIMER: So sue me, sue me. What can you do me? I love yoooouuu.

"Alice, Alice, come back!" The Cheshire Cat sounded worried. Such was very strange for a Cheshire Cat.

The Cheshire Cat was very wise, yet very mad. He spoke in riddles, and held himself aloof with a surreptitious air of mischief. He would vanish with a cackle rather than stay and fight; that was a job for little human girls and rabbits. Alice had often been upset at such treatment, but she nonetheless valued and depended upon the information with which creature provided her. Alice admired, and needed, the abilities and the wisdom of the Cheshire Cat.

Where was the Cat, indeed? And why would he sound worried? He could just leave; he could just vanish without a trace. He could just leave Alice behind, to fight and perhaps to die. It was all very curious, indeed.

Alice spun around, tense as she searched for the Cheshire Cat. She squinted, in vain trying to discern through billowing clouds of smoke.

Smoke?

Alice heard a howl of pain. The Cheshire Cat was still visible, and he was drowling and spawing, trying to douse the fire that clung to his fur. The flames were spreading from his tail upward.

"I suppose he can't vanish and burn at the same time," she reasoned. She hurried toward the veil, fingering for her knife as she ran toward water, sputtering as she made her way through ash and flame.

The Veil of Tears had been set afire, as had the Cheshire Cat. And now the fire was headed straight toward her. Or, rather, she, straight toward it. Surely the water could douse the flame? Alice wanted to see the flame die, to see it cripple. She wanted to defeat the fire. Perhaps the water could help her do the job. And save the Cat.

Alice hated fire, feared fire. The fire had driven her mad. She ran through the inferno, a true citizen of Wonderland. Mad. She had joined their ranks.

She felt the fire lick her ankles as she ran. She gritted her teeth and continued her war, even as she felt it grip the edges of her dress. She stopped when felt a burn, a hot searing burn. Alice groaned and screamed at the same time. The sound was eerie.

Things were dire indeed. Suddenly Alice was afraid. Unnaturally afraid. What could have caused such a thing?

She groaned again, this time in frustration rather than in agony. Why did terrible things always find her? "I am cursed," she thought to herself, for the umpteenth time. Yet never had she believed it so much as she did now. Waves of despair overtook her. She sunk to the ground, and in doing so forfeited the battle and gave up her war. She let the flame spread, resigned. She would die horribly, just like everyone else she knew, just like the Cat and her... parents. Just like her family. Just like her sister had! It made sense that Alice should die from fire as well. She ought to have seen it coming. No, she ought to have died with them! It would have been proper if she had died with them, in the fire.

Alice watched silently as the blaze spread evermore. Alice took notice of the elegant curves of the dancing flames, of the shapes in the smoke. One shape in particular resembled a rabbit. Alice smiled. She found it all rather beautiful, eerie, mesmerizing.

The rabbit was getting bigger, and closer.

Alice suddenly felt very wet, and no longer on fire. The water returned her to her senses, and she blinked furiously, aghast at her own madness. She felt rather stupid, and tried to distract herself. She blinked again and zoomed in on a figure in the distance. Alice squinted, trying to steady her sights, and then suddenly felt a great wave of relief wash over as she discerned a Cheshire Cat's valiant attempts to rectify singed fur.

"That's really not a good look for you," shouted Alice toward the Cat, who swiveled around to face the voice he recognized, surprised at her comment. Alice was rarely sarcastic. The Cheshire Cat appreciated the humor, however, and began to cackle. The White Rabbit looked a tad affronted at the sound, and a bit angry about the whole thing. Alice was behaving strangely, and she was acting mighty ungrateful. He had just saved her life, had he not? He puffed out his chest. "We're late, we must continue onward! Stop dawdling, we haven't the time! We cannot afford to be late!"

The Cheshire Cat grew solemn, and hobbled closer to Alice and the White Rabbit. He gave the rabbit a stern look. "We shall dictate our own schedule."

Alice acknowledged the situation haughtily. The Cat spoke wisely, but then so did the Rabbit. They were both right. Alice wavered, but for a millisecond, before she cleared her throat.

"How did this fire come to be?"

He seemed to read her mind. He had at first had similar suspicions, but the Cat's wisdom trumped that of a human's." I do not think that this was the queen, or her followers. This was something else."

Alice frowned. Since when did the Cheshire Cat "think" things? He always knew things, or at least feigned wisdom with his riddles, as crazy as they were. Alice did not like his use of the word, he was supposed to be the authority and Wiseman amongst the mad, the foundation. His weakness, first in being caught on fire and now in being openly uncertain, unsettled Alice, who was on the brink of madness as it was. She found that, facing this new dilemma, she missed his riddles and taunts. She preferred them to blatant uncertainty.

"Perhaps it was an accident." Alice snapped out of her reverie as the White Rabbit spoke.

"Come along, and let us hurry." The White Rabbit was anxious to get away from this place of tears and flame, as quickly as possible. He wanted to flee the scene before anything else happened. They could speculate somewhere else.

Alice put herself in his path. Something powerful and forceful blazed in her eyes, emanating from her very core. Was it fire?

"No. Someone knew I hated fire. They did this to stop me. And perhaps to clear away the Cat as well. This was not an accident, I am sure."

"Either way, we mustn't remain here. Whatever it is might return. We should leave. The Veil of Tears is a dangerous place."

Alice surveyed the scene one more time. The three then turned in unison, unsettled but together, and walked through the veil of tears; even the Cat, who could have just vanished and reappeared.

But he accompanied them. The battle had become a part of him, as had Alice and the others. He found their mode of travel refreshing. He ventured that they might not just be pawns, but friends too. Friends. It seemed mad, all of it!

The Cat smiled at the thought. Mad. Mad was good.


End file.
